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Considering the blast-furnace heat and the oppressive humidity that blanketed Memphis throughout this race weekend, it was perhaps only atural that half of the professional field would have to return to Memphis Motorsports Park on Monday morning for an extra day of racing at the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals. After all, if the first three days were miserable, why not add a fourth?
Phil Burkart, driving the "Madman Murray" Chevy at this event, was happy to sleep fast on Sunday night and return to the scene of all the action at the crack of dawn Monday, because doing so meant he had picked up a precious round win before Sunday's deluge washed out the event at the conclusion of the first round. Burkart defeated Jim Head in round one.
"Sunday was a very long day, let me tell you," Burkart said. "We didn't start until 3:00 in the afternoon, and then it started to rain once we got out of round one. They finally let us go at around 9:00 Sunday night. Winning round one seems like ancient history right now. It seems like that happened at the last event. But, it's in the record books and it was a great win to pick up. Head's car has been running really well the last couple of races, and the out-qualified us here by 2-hundredths."
Sunday's action took place on the third consecutive day of stultifying heat and humidity, which not only slowed the cars but also kept fans and crew members in danger of overheating. Aid stations were set up throughout the spectator areas, to keep the assembled masses as cool as possible, but there was no aid for the race cars. Burkart's win over Head was accomplished with a 5.426-second pass.
"It was about as bad as it can get out there," Burkart said. "The heat takes it out of you, but it also makes the track slick. On top of that, the humidity was enormous too, and all that water in the air is impossible to burn. So you've got a slick track and bad air. There's only so much you can do, and our plan was just to make sure we got to the other end under power, no matter how much we had to take out of the tune-up. It worked."
Once back in the pit area to prepare for their second round match-up with Eric Medlen, the Murray's crew saw the lightning and heard the thunder well before the first rain drops fell. The showers soon began in earnest and activities ground to a halt, leaving drivers and crew members nothing to do but wait. Originally, radar indicated the storm might pass quickly and word was spread that the Safety Safari was standing by to dry the track. Sure enough, the rain soon abated and jet dryers rolled. Almost like torture, however, the rain returned just as Top Fuel was called to the lanes and this time the storm settled in for the long haul.
Returning to the track at 7:00 am on Monday, Burkart and his team picked up where they left off and test fired their car. At the stroke of 9:00 they were pulling through the staging lanes and lining up against Medlen.
Burkart pulled in deep, taking out the top bulbs on the tree, and both drivers left the line strong. Medlen made up the 3-hundredths deficit Burkart had strapped on him at the line, and stayed ahead down the 1,320 feet. As they neared the finish line, Medlen's machine began to eat itself up, and Burkart was closing fast, but at the stripe Medlen's 4.924 was just a bit too much for Burkart's 5.025 to handle. The margin of victory was 72-thousandths of a second.
"I didn't mean to put the top bulbs out," Burkart said. "I usually roll in pretty far on race day, but the car just rolled further on me than I expected. The lanes were pretty much equal, so I wasn't thinking in terms of saving some ET for lane choice. I just wanted to be as close to the finish line as possible and figured I'd take a good hunk of the lower bulbs, but the brakes didn't quite grab like they normally do and it kept rolling on me.
"We gave it a good shot. We were first pair out there, and it was obvious that both of our teams were taking a pretty blind shot at it. It was 9:00 in the morning and the conditions were completely different than anything we've seen here. When the pairings were picked last night, we were actually set to be the last pair, but I guess the Force camp decided to send Eric up there first to be the guinea pig, so they changed their mind. Once we ran, I'm sure all the other crew chiefs were twiddling knobs back there because everyone after us picked up quite a bit. It didn't matter to us when he ran, and we might have picked first pair had we had the choice. We like to get up there and do it, without letting the other guys see too much. Unfortunately, we were just a hair short."
Burkart, his teammate Del Worsham, and the entire Team CSK group will now head directly to Indianapolis for a two-day test session on Tuesday and Wednesday. After that, it's a rare weekend off before the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals kick off on Friday September 1.
18 HOURS LATER, A SECOND-ROUND FINISH FOR BURKART
Considering the blast-furnace heat and the oppressive humidity that blanketed Memphis throughout this race weekend, it was perhaps only atural that half of the professional field would have to return to Memphis Motorsports Park on Monday morning for an extra day of racing at the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals. After all, if the first three days were miserable, why not add a fourth?
Phil Burkart, driving the "Madman Murray" Chevy at this event, was happy to sleep fast on Sunday night and return to the scene of all the action at the crack of dawn Monday, because doing so meant he had picked up a precious round win before Sunday's deluge washed out the event at the conclusion of the first round. Burkart defeated Jim Head in round one.
"Sunday was a very long day, let me tell you," Burkart said. "We didn't start until 3:00 in the afternoon, and then it started to rain once we got out of round one. They finally let us go at around 9:00 Sunday night. Winning round one seems like ancient history right now. It seems like that happened at the last event. But, it's in the record books and it was a great win to pick up. Head's car has been running really well the last couple of races, and the out-qualified us here by 2-hundredths."
Sunday's action took place on the third consecutive day of stultifying heat and humidity, which not only slowed the cars but also kept fans and crew members in danger of overheating. Aid stations were set up throughout the spectator areas, to keep the assembled masses as cool as possible, but there was no aid for the race cars. Burkart's win over Head was accomplished with a 5.426-second pass.
"It was about as bad as it can get out there," Burkart said. "The heat takes it out of you, but it also makes the track slick. On top of that, the humidity was enormous too, and all that water in the air is impossible to burn. So you've got a slick track and bad air. There's only so much you can do, and our plan was just to make sure we got to the other end under power, no matter how much we had to take out of the tune-up. It worked."
Once back in the pit area to prepare for their second round match-up with Eric Medlen, the Murray's crew saw the lightning and heard the thunder well before the first rain drops fell. The showers soon began in earnest and activities ground to a halt, leaving drivers and crew members nothing to do but wait. Originally, radar indicated the storm might pass quickly and word was spread that the Safety Safari was standing by to dry the track. Sure enough, the rain soon abated and jet dryers rolled. Almost like torture, however, the rain returned just as Top Fuel was called to the lanes and this time the storm settled in for the long haul.
Returning to the track at 7:00 am on Monday, Burkart and his team picked up where they left off and test fired their car. At the stroke of 9:00 they were pulling through the staging lanes and lining up against Medlen.
Burkart pulled in deep, taking out the top bulbs on the tree, and both drivers left the line strong. Medlen made up the 3-hundredths deficit Burkart had strapped on him at the line, and stayed ahead down the 1,320 feet. As they neared the finish line, Medlen's machine began to eat itself up, and Burkart was closing fast, but at the stripe Medlen's 4.924 was just a bit too much for Burkart's 5.025 to handle. The margin of victory was 72-thousandths of a second.
"I didn't mean to put the top bulbs out," Burkart said. "I usually roll in pretty far on race day, but the car just rolled further on me than I expected. The lanes were pretty much equal, so I wasn't thinking in terms of saving some ET for lane choice. I just wanted to be as close to the finish line as possible and figured I'd take a good hunk of the lower bulbs, but the brakes didn't quite grab like they normally do and it kept rolling on me.
"We gave it a good shot. We were first pair out there, and it was obvious that both of our teams were taking a pretty blind shot at it. It was 9:00 in the morning and the conditions were completely different than anything we've seen here. When the pairings were picked last night, we were actually set to be the last pair, but I guess the Force camp decided to send Eric up there first to be the guinea pig, so they changed their mind. Once we ran, I'm sure all the other crew chiefs were twiddling knobs back there because everyone after us picked up quite a bit. It didn't matter to us when he ran, and we might have picked first pair had we had the choice. We like to get up there and do it, without letting the other guys see too much. Unfortunately, we were just a hair short."
Burkart, his teammate Del Worsham, and the entire Team CSK group will now head directly to Indianapolis for a two-day test session on Tuesday and Wednesday. After that, it's a rare weekend off before the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals kick off on Friday September 1.
